Local History Journals and Their Contributions: Where Would We Be Without Them?

In the era of digitization so much information is so easily accessed that it is difficult for contemporary researchers to imagine trying to locate documents, manuscripts, ephemera, and other local history finds without the aid of the Internet. We are still just a few decades removed from when this was the norm, and historians or genealogists searched for that forgotten or unknown document on the shelves of a library or even among the pages of a local history journal. These local history journals appeared all over the country and struggled for survival, some published for only a short period of time, while others weathered the storm and survive to this day. The contributions made by these journals are substantial, with hidden gems of information awaiting discovery by determined researchers.

History was only beginning to be recognized as an academic discipline when the American Historical Association was founded in 1884. Part of the movement to professionalize academic subjects acknowledged that it was important to contribute well-researched and readable articles to scholarly journals. As an outlet for this new historical scholarship the association published the American Historical Review, and other historical journals followed close behind. This was a significant change since before this new movement the "amateur" historian, who leisurely explored events, issues, and people, dominated the historical research scene. The new "professional" historian was reluctant to recognize the contributions of these amateurs, and the dialogue between these two groups was limited.¹ These dedicated "amateur" historians contributed a great deal to the field of history, and their accomplishments should not be overlooked.

The American Historical Review was an early scholarly history journal, but outlets for publishing historical research appeared soon after the founding of the country. The Massachusetts Historical Society dates to 1791 when Reverend Jeremy Belknap convened nine friends to come up with a method for collecting and preserving documents of American history. They wanted this new Massachusetts Historical Society to become not only a repository, collecting and preserving American history resources, but also a publisher. The first volume of the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, a justly famous periodical, was published in 1792.² Independent local historical societies during the early period led the way in preserving and publishing documents of local and national importance, and the value of their work cannot be overemphasized. When the New-York Historical Society was founded in 1804, it, too, saw as its

mission the "collecting and preserving [of] important materials that may be invaluable to its future historians":

Our inquiries are not limited to a single State or district, but extend to the whole Continent; and it will be our business to diffuse the information we may collect in such a manner as will best conduce to general instruction. As soon as our collection shall be sufficient to form a volume, and the funds of the Society will admit, we shall commence publication, that we may better secure our treasures by means of the press, from the corrosions of time and the power of accident.³

Their actual publication program began in 1811 when the first volume of Collections appeared. It contained journals of Verrazano and Hudson, assorted documents of New York, and previously unpublished laws established by the Duke of York in 1664-65.⁴ Ten volumes of the Collections were produced, and in 1917 the society launched the New-York Historical Society Quarterly as an outlet for scholarly research.⁵

The third independent historical society founded in the United States was the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts. Incorporated by the legislature of Massachusetts in 1812, its "object is to collect and preserve the most authentic ancient documents and memorials, and to excite new investigations and researches, upon whatever relates to the aborigines of America, and the subsequent discovery and history of the country."⁶ Its publication record began in 1820 with the Transactions and Collections of the American Antiquarian Society, known as Archaeologia Americana. Covering topics as diverse as the records of the Massachusetts Bay Company to the diaries of Isaiah Thomas, eleven volumes followed...